PACE WINS RACE TO BASSMASTER TITLE

TULSA, Okla. 
Here at the birthplace of Route 66 and one-time oil capital of the world, where Tulsa’s rabid bass fishing fans produced monster armadas on Grand Lake and crazy crowds in the BOK Arena, Cliff Pace struck his own kind of gold Sunday.

Pace, 32, of Petal, Miss., hit Okie gold, B.A.S.S. green, stacking enough largemouth bass in his livewell over three days to fetch a $500,000 first-place check for winning the 43rd Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees. He was one bass shy of a five-fish limit on the final day, but it didn’t matter. He went into Day 3 with a 7-pound lead and totaled 11 pounds, 8 ounces Sunday to give him a three-day total of 54-12, 3 pounds, 4 ounces heavier than Rathdrum, Idaho’s 25-year-old fishing phenom Brandon Palaniuk’s 51-8.

“Today was the hardest day I ever spent on my boat in my life,” Pace said. “I caught two bass on my first two stops, but then I went six hours without a bite. I settled down and fished as slow as I could and caught what I needed.”

Pace, who credited veteran pro Gary Klein of Weatherford, Texas, for being his mentor and friend on the B.A.S.S. Elite Series tour, became the 39th member of the B.A.S.S. Millionaires Club ($1.26 million), the second-youngest at 32. He did it by avoiding the drama that befell other anglers such as Classic rookie Hank Cherry, of Maiden, N.C., who tumbled down the shuttle stairs the day before the Classic, and Classic winner Michael Iaconelli, of Pittsgrove, N.J., whose struggles with a trolling motor forced him to exchange boats in the middle of Day 2. Cherry was third with 49 pounds, and Iaconelli was fourth with 48-5.

Pace survived pre-Classic practices in a “wintry mix” and the coldest morning ever in Classic history (Day 1). He excelled on a massive lake with 1,300 miles of shoreline where the bass were big, but scattered in chilly water that dipped below 40 degrees and spawning is a ways off. The man nicknamed “Game Face” Pace because of his no-nonsense approach and seemingly lack of emotion, the man who learned to fish as a 6-year-old in Mississippi with his father and uncles and their friends, won because he was the best here.

“The ‘Game Face’ thing is fine with me because I do come out here to compete,” Pace said. “It’s a job to me. This is how I make my living, how I feed my family. It’s very serious to me.”

Pace, who finished second to Alton Jones at the 2008 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell, won it by being super patient, making the most of just seven to eight bites a day and catching huge bass up to 7 pounds. He used Jackall jerkbaits — Squid Minnow 95 and Soul Shad; a B&M half-ounce football jig with V&M Twin Tail trailers in green pumpkin and the tails dipped in orange die and a Jackall DD Cherry crankbait in crawdad color. The baits imitated the lake’s forage fish and critters like gizzard shad, threadfin shad and crayfish.

Pace won his first pro tournament as a 22-year-old, taking a B.A.S.S. Central Open at Sam Rayburn in 2003, and at the time he was the eighth-youngest to ever win a B.A.S.S. event. Since then he has won at a high clip on tour. He is the fifth best on the Elite Series in earning a check (top 50) at a 74 percent rate.

Pace was called a worthy pro to win this by the likes of Iaconelli and Kevin VanDam, who finished eighth.

“He’s a ‘dark-to-dark’ guy, really puts in his time like I do,” Iaconelli said.

Former San Diegan Dean Rojas caught five bass totaling 10 pounds, 11 ounces for a total of 39-2 to finish 14th. Ishama Monroe of Hughson weighed in 10-7 for 36-8 to place 19th.